UT Tyler Office of News and Information

MEDIA ADVISORY: UT Tyler College of Nursing and Health Sciences to Hold Public Research Program Presentation

October 26, 2010

Media Contact: Hannah Buchanan Public Affairs SpecialistNews and InformationThe University of Texas at Tyler903.565.5769

The University of Texas at Tyler College of Nursing and Health Sciences will hold a community-based participatory research program Wednesday, Oct. 27, Dr. Gayle Varnell, associate professor and assistant dean for advanced practice, announced.

The public event will be 10 – 11:30 a.m. at the UT Tyler Ornelas Activity Center, 3402 Old Omen Road in Tyler.

Dr. Carolyn Jenkins, professor and the Ann Darlington Edwards endowed chair in nursing at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, serves as keynote speaker.

Jenkins has worked with communities throughout South Carolina to improve health outcomes related to diabetes and its complications, especially for the state's underserved African Americans.

The focus of her work is reducing racial disparities and creating effective academic community partnerships. Two major initiatives for Jenkins are the statewide South Carolina Diabetes Initiative where she served as the Director of Outreach and Charleston's Enterprise/MUSC Neighborhood Health Program that she founded in 1995.

This summer, Varnell and Dr. Susan Yarbrough, UT Tyler associate dean for graduate nursing programs, received a three-year $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration to expand the UT Tyler’s nurse practitioner program and increase the number of family nurse practitioners and pediatric nurse practitioners in the northeast Texas region.

“A key component of the grant is to use the concepts of community-based participatory research to better meet the needs of the communities served, and we are excited to have Dr. Jenkins visit our campus to share her expertise with the community,” Varnell said.

For more information or interviews, contact Hannah Buchanan, 903.565.5769.